Who impregnates school going girls in Muhoroni?

Sex before marriage is a sin punishable by death. She who abstains is the deserving and accepted woman in the society…

This is the gospel at least all girls grow up not only listening to but also trying so hard to abide by.

Without a doubt, abstinence is the best message to preach to young people but we are burying our heads in the sand assuming this message is consumed and practiced wholesomely.

In Muhoroni Mixed Secondary school, the head teacher is one sad man since he cannot stand seeing his girls one by one drop out of school as a result of pregnancy and his boys suffering from STIs.

Since the abstinence gospel has not been adhered to, he has taken measures to combat the increasing teenage pregnancies. First, the girls and boys learn in different rooms despite being in a mixed school!

Secondly, the girls are subjected to periodic pregnancy tests in a bid to scare them. Unfortunately, these measures have failed since pregnancy cases are still being reported. Just who is responsible for the pregnancies?

The principal sought outside help and invited KMET to talk to his students. During a very interactive session, the girls revealed that most of their friends and classmates are being impregnated by laborers in the sugar cane plantations commonly referred to as obanda.

Obanda seems to be having easy cash to issue. Most of the other girls on the other hand are poor and are struggling to belong to a class of fashionable ladies.

“I would wish to put on beautiful expensive clothes like other ladies but I cannot afford on my own. That is why I would easily accept money from obanda,” says one of the girls.

Unfortunately for them, the goodies are not for free. The payment is sex. The saddest part is that the sexual act takes place in the sugarcane plantations. Most of the time condoms are not used and the result is another teen pregnant and has to drop out of school. Obanda then moves to the next prey.

The youth peer providers helped the girls understand the dangers of engaging in unprotected sex. Getting pregnant and dropping out of school could not be a grave consequence as death during delivery or while procuring unsafe abortion. They were also reminded they stand a high chance of HIV and STI infection.

We also enlightened the girls on their sexual reproductive health rights to enable them make informed choices and of course the use of contraceptives unto them that cannot wait for the right time to engage in sex.